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Why green hotels are adding more plants

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The Jewel at Changi airport is a shopping mall that houses 2000 trees and palms and 10,000 shrubs, a hedge maze and a rain vortex cascading seven storeys, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.

Pan Pacific Orchard is divided into Forest, Garden, Cloud and Beach.Credit: Darren Soh

At the Pan Pacific Orchard on Orchard Road, the impressive 23-storey tower has four separate climate zones – forest, beach, garden and cloud – with dense greenery settings, enormous plant-covered pillars and cascading water features.

And at the new Mandai Rainforest retreat by Banyan Tree, just 30 minutes from Singapore’s central business district, vines trail from platforms and balconies and greenery springs up in every passage and corner of the contemporary building. The plan is for the resort to entirely disappear into the rainforest as the plants grow.

While it’s common to be surrounded by plants at resorts in natural environments like tropical jungles or alpine forests, it’s city hotels that are really getting the green-up.

Some of the hotels in the 1 Hotel brand feature about 4000 plants. Clearly, a few hanging pot plants or rubber trees in pots won’t do any more.

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This is part of a broader healthy building movement, which takes a holistic design approach, viewing the construction of a building and its inhabitants as deeply intertwined; human nature as well as plant nature.

It seems to me that this should be the most fundamental consideration of building design, but I think we’ve all seen buildings that have the opposite effect, ignoring the mental health aspects of existing in spaces unsympathetic to our innate biological connection with nature.

Brutalism appears to be in fashion again, but no matter how visually stunning those spaces are, they’re difficult to live in.

As the global population continues to urbanise, architects and designers are trying to figure out how people can reap the benefits of being in nature without going outside.

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We’re lucky in Australia that even our biggest cities provide access to water, trees and natural light. But other urban environments are often land-locked concrete jungles.

The Japanese have always been respectful of the natural world, and even Tokyo, with its population of 37 million, can feel tranquil because of the access to Zen gardens and gorgeous interior tree plantings.

When we travel, we spend a lot of time in artificial environments – planes and airports, notably. Research shows that guests spend more time in biophilic hotel lobbies and rooms. It’s understandable that we would want to stay in a space that’s green and uplifting.

It’s a green revolution.



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Stayntouch Powers Seamless Operations at more than 20 of TPG Hotels & Resorts’ Independent Properties

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Bethesda, MD – Stayntouch, a global leader in cloud hotel property management systems (PMS), announced the expansion of its partnership with TPG Hotels & Resorts, a premier hospitality management company with a diverse portfolio of hotels across the United States. TPG now leverages Stayntouch’s flexible PMS to power a portfolio of independent properties representing over 1,400 rooms.

TPG Hotels & Resorts has built a sophisticated and results-driven hospitality management platform. Known for its comprehensive services, from development and purchasing to sales and marketing, TPG combines operational excellence with meticulous execution to drive value and performance for its partners.

Stayntouch’s Best-in-Class PMS delivers:

  • User-friendly, intuitive design that gets staff up to speed quickly, reducing training time and empowering teams to deliver great service from day one.
  • Powerful multi-property management tools that give above-property teams centralized oversight while preserving flexibility and autonomy at the property level.
  • Smart automation that eliminates repetitive manual tasks, allowing staff to focus on what matters most, creating exceptional guest experiences.
  • Responsive, hospitality-savvy support that’s prompt, proactive, and grounded in real-world operational experience.

Stayntouch makes it easy to run a complex hotel portfolio on a single, centralized platform without sacrificing flexibility at the property level. The system is incredibly intuitive—our staff actually prefer it over our legacy PMS and we’re able to get up and running with very little training. On top of that, the support team is outstanding. They’re fast, responsive, and truly understand the day-to-day realities of hotel operations. This combination of smart tech and reliable support makes a big difference for a company like ours. Michael Brown, Vice President of Business Intelligence at TPG Hotels & Resorts

Our partnership with TPG Hotels & Resorts is all about a shared commitment to their growth and success. We work hand in hand with their teams to simplify operations across their portfolio, providing reliable and flexible technology that adapts as their needs evolve. We’re here to help them thrive today and well into the future, no matter how the hospitality landscape changes. Reid Webster, Vice President for Strategic Growth at Stayntouch

About Stayntouch

Stayntouch delivers a full-featured and Best-in-Class cloud property management system (PMS) with a comprehensive library of over 1,200 best-in-class integrations. Our cloud-native PMS empowers hotels to drive revenue, reduce costs, enhance service, and captivate their guests. Stayntouch’s newly expanded PMS platform, Stayntouch 2.0, further simplifies hotel operations, allowing hotels to streamline and accelerate direct bookings, process payments easily, and simplify integrations, offering an even more enhanced guest experience. Stayntouch is supported by a team of professionals with deep roots in the hospitality industry and is a trusted partner to industry-leading management companies, including Sage Hospitality, HEI Hotels & Resorts, EOS Hospitality, and Stoney Creek Hotels, innovative independent brands such as Village Hotels, Pod Hotels, and First Hotels, and iconic independent properties such as the TWA Hotel and Zoku Amsterdam. For more information, visit www.stayntouch.com.

About TPG Hotels & Resorts

TPG Hotels & Resorts is a premier operator of hospitality assets across all chain scales, including luxury, full service, select service, and upscale independent hotels under the INTERA Collection. With over four decades of operational excellence and more than 650 properties in its historical portfolio, TPG is a trusted hospitality management partner for institutional owners, developers, and investors. For more information, visit www.tpghotelsandresorts.com.

Elliott Mest
MFC PR



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Review | Fairmont Tokyo, the luxury chain’s first outpost in Japan

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Before travelling to Japan to discover the newly opened Fairmont Tokyo, I really didn’t know what to expect.

Established in 1907 with the opening of Fairmont San Francisco, the chain is now part of the French group Accor, the company behind brands such as Raffles and Sofitel. While I was familiar with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and had the pleasure of staying at the group’s Manila outpost years ago, Fairmont has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, especially for Asia-based luxury travellers – unlike other hotel groups such as The Peninsula, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental and Aman.

This is set to change with the arrival of Fairmont Tokyo, its first hotel in Japan, which will give the city’s other five-star luxury hotels a run for their money.

The hotel is located in the recently revitalised Shibaura neighbourhood. Photo: Handout

Located in the coastal Shibaura neighbourhood – a quiet area only a ten-minute taxi ride away from buzzy Ginza – the property is flanked on one side by Tokyo Bay and on the other by Tokyo Tower, one of the city’s landmarks.

Given Tokyo’s vast expanse, it’s easy to forget that it’s a port city – something you can truly appreciate if your room or suite faces the sea overlooking Rainbow Bridge, which lights up at night. It’s a welcome change from Tokyo’s urban sprawl, providing some respite from the density and high-rises typical of the metropolis.

The hotel occupies the top floors of a newly built skyscraper owned by Nomura Rea Estate Development Co, a key player in the recent redevelopment of Shibaura. At the waterfront neighbourhood, you can walk along lovely canals, take a break in lush gardens and have a bite at one of the casual eateries dotting the area.

The 20-metre swimming pool overlooks the city’s skyline and Tokyo Bay. Photo: Handout

Like many luxury hotels these days, the journey begins on one of the upper floors, the 35th, where the lobby is located. The breathtaking views start here, thanks to the outdoor terraces that surround the expansive space, and they’re definitely one of the hotel’s main selling points. Also on the lobby level are a spa, a 20-metre indoor infinity swimming pool, an outdoor pool with a relaxation deck, and a well-equipped gym.

Fairmont is not necessarily known for its wellness offerings, but the spa was a very pleasant surprise. All treatments begin with a foot soak performed with a mix of home-grown ingredients such as azuki beans and matcha powder, which you can select before your session. I opted for a facial, which was performed with Japanese jeweller Mikimoto’s pearl-derived skincare – an unexpected touch that definitely made a difference.
The living room in a suite facing Tokyo Bay. Photo: Handout



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Gulmarg authorities take over 137-year-old Nedous Hotel owned by J&K CM Omar’s relatives

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SRINAGAR: The Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) on Monday took over possession of the famed 137-year-old Nedous Hotel for operating without a valid lease and flagrant violation of directions of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir.

The hotel, which was established in 1888 and owned by relatives of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, had allegedly been operating without a valid lease since 1985.

The GDA took action under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1988, in compliance with orders issued by both the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of J&K.

The Assistant Director of Tourism, acting as the designated Estate Officer, oversaw the eviction and transfer of premises to GDA. The operation of taking over possession of the property passed off peacefully in presence of a local magistrate and police personnel in strict compliance with orders of J&K High Court and Supreme Court of India.

A few days back, the GDA served an eviction notice to the hotel management through the Estates Officer (Assistant Director Tourism), following which the take over was processed.

“In exercise of powers conferred under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1988 and in compliance with the orders of the Hon’ble High Court J&K and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, it is hereby ordered that the persons presently in unauthorised occupation of the public premises known as Hotel Nedous, Gulmarg, are hereby directed to vacate the public premises forthwith and handover the possession,” read the eviction notice issued by Estates Officer Gulmarg to the hotel management.



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